Onwards to Anchorage

Tuesday 27 May
Must have been a big day yesterday as we slept in until 8.00 and only just made breakfast in time.  Funnily, we were not the only ones as we soon found out.  We are basically heading west across the Bay of Alaska towards Whittier & College Fjords.  Yesterday's wonderful weather has been replaced by cloudy, cold weather with the odd light shower.  We did our mile walk in between the drizzle and sighted another whale along the way.  We finished off our coffee card (from our Ocean Princess cruise) and caught up with Wilson & Jenny from West Australia - he was the former Australian Cabinet Minister I mentioned earlier.  Well that filled in a couple of hours ☺ and it was time for lunch and then Vivian was off to bridge again.

Unfortunately the time has come to pack our bags and work out what we may need tonight/tomorrow. It has been a bit of a nightmare as we were given luggage tags and details for disembarkation, which turned out to be wrong, even though we'd queried it.  So fingers are crossed that we get reunited with our bags in Anchorage.  Actually the bag packing turned out to be a pretty simple job although I'll leave the locking part until after dinner.

At about 6.00, we entered the College Fjords (which are named after various US colleges).  Unfortunately the weather was not the best, but we made our way up Harvard Sound and got as far as Yale before the ship stopped.  We could see numerous glaciers and also got to see many Otters & Seals playing alongside the ship.  BUT, what we saw most were substantial icebergs.  I have the feeling that these originated as pack ice, as they were much thicker than the ones we saw yesterday.  Anyway the Captain was erring on the side of caution as I am sure he didn't want a Titanic on his hands, not that they were that big, but clearly there was a lot under the water.

By 7.30 we decided that we'd go down for dinner before the crowds descended - which they didn't...  Anyway, forgot to mention that we met up with this English couple, much older than us, about 4 nights ago.  Hazel & Terry come out to NZ/Australia every year and had a great affinity with us.  Purely by coincidence we ended up with them at our table every night.  We'd turn up to the dining room door and there they were.  The same happened tonight.  Very pleasant company and Terry was an Accountant/partner in a major London practice (I see from his card that he has an OBE, but we never asked about that.  Anyway the amazing coincidence is that when we first met them Vivian said that we lived just north of Auckland and immediately Terry said "is it near Warkworth?". Turns out that they have friends in Warkworth who they visit when in NZ.  On our 3rd dinner, somehow we were talking about where they live just out of London, near Windsor and we suddenly realised that we had stayed in their little village when we were in UK 4 years ago.  Incredible.

In good Princess tradition, the parade of the Bombe Alaska took place (just as we had finished main course).  Given that we were at anytime dining, our timing was perfect.  To keep up my reputation however, I still had to have my Princess Loveboat Dream as well.  For those not in the known, it is a simple chocolate mousse which I have every night on every cruise.  Who said I was predictable?   Anyway, got back to the cabin and had the bags outside our door by 10.15 and in to bed.  No sooner had we just about got to sleep, when the thrusters came on and I found that we were berthing at Whittier at 11.00.  ahead of schedule.

Wednesday 28 May
Had a final breakfast onboard and disembarked at 8.30.  Our adventures of the day will be revealed in a later post, as it is currently 10.30 pm, although it looks like midday outside!!